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00:01Don't let people see you out there signing autographs, all these little kids and stuff.
00:05They say, oh, he's not a bad guy.
00:07You want them to think you're the baddest, meanest bastard ever walked the street.
00:12And that's the way you're going to make money.
00:14Dr. D and David Schultz.
00:17In the early 80s, there were few better at playing the villain than Dr. D, David Schultz.
00:23What's wrong with you? You're crazy.
00:24Come out here and try to make a fool out of me. Get the camera out of here.
00:27He was big enough and mean enough to get his own way.
00:31Get down and fight, baby. Get down.
00:33At the same time, he was a tremendous performer.
00:35He was destined to become one of World Wrestling Federation's most notorious stars.
00:41I come do that. W-I-W-I-L, baby.
00:44They hated me, but they loved me. They loved to hate me.
00:47I'm the guy that went to school with you people out there when you was growing up.
00:51It took your lunch money from you.
00:53That was my job, to be bad, and I could back it up.
00:56But one fateful encounter in New York would destroy his career in an instant.
01:00To make sure that nobody knew the secrets inside the locker room.
01:05You know?
01:05Standard question.
01:06I think this is fake.
01:07What's your response to the people who point out that this is fake?
01:12You think it's fake?
01:13You're talking about this?
01:14Holy shit. What the hell just happened here?
01:16In an era when wrestlers lived by an honor code of protecting the business,
01:21no one took it more to heart than David Schultz.
01:24And one single action cost him everything.
01:28They called me back and said, nobody wants to sign a contract with you.
01:30You're too mean. You're too bad.
01:32I'm anything but fake.
01:34I'm an entertainer, con man, whatever.
01:38I am not a fake.
01:48For most of the 20th century, professional wrestling was a closed society
01:53where the rules of the game were never revealed to the paying public.
01:57Wrestlers lived by a secret code that maintained the illusion of good and evil
02:02in the squared circle, make the fights look real even if the matches are predetermined.
02:08But at the dawn of a pro wrestling revolution,
02:11the old traditions were changing faster than some performers could keep up with.
02:19Okay, this is one of my storage units here.
02:22Oh, yeah. Here we go, baby.
02:24Just come on in. Bring yourself on in here.
02:26Watch your step.
02:28Watch the spiders and the snakes and all that.
02:31Here's a card that I used to use.
02:33It said, you've just been patronized by the world's greatest pro wrestler.
02:37Where's this thing come from?
02:39I don't know how they get it look so lively, you know, just like me.
02:43This bag here has got some very special items.
02:48One of them is a stun gun.
02:51And you take this and you pull it back here.
02:55And when you hold it on the guy, you just tell him, you're under arrest.
02:59Get your hands up.
03:00If you don't obey, I'm going to shoot you.
03:04And they say, hey, man.
03:06Boom.
03:07I'm Dr. D. David Schultz.
03:09Probably the greatest pro wrestler of all time, in my opinion.
03:13You know, about 72, 73, I was watching wrestling on TV one time and I said, well, this is not
03:20hard.
03:20So I went by to see Herb Welch.
03:23This one right here is Herb Welch, the one that trained me.
03:27Herb Welch, how to become a champion.
03:30Herb Welch had been one of the biggest wrestling stars in the South from the time of the Depression through
03:34the 1950s.
03:35He had learned from the pioneers, the original pro wrestlers that came from the carnivals.
03:41It was the last place in the country that you could go to literally learn from a guy who was
03:46there at the formation of organized professional wrestling.
03:49I'm Jim Cornette, and for nearly 40 years, I've been a promoter, a matchmaker, announcer, manager, and a historian in
03:56professional wrestling.
03:57He lived in Divesburg.
03:58I went out there and pulled the truck over, and he come out on the porch.
04:02We sat there and talked a while, and he said, yeah, I'll train you when you want to start.
04:07His method of training was to take these guys into his barn on his farm and beat the piss out
04:12of them.
04:13Herb Welch was such a salty, mean old bastard that he would go in the locker room and he would
04:18take a dump.
04:19And he would take a handful of it, and he would rub it in his armpit.
04:23And then when he got out there, the first thing he'd do is he'd lock up with the guy and
04:27grab a headlock
04:28and start grinding that head as hard as he could until the guy was screaming,
04:32please let me go. I'll do anything you want. Please let me go.
04:35They was trying to hurt me, say, can you be one of us? Are you capable of doing this?
04:41I'd already gotten in pretty good shape after about a month and a half, two months.
04:45He was getting wrestlers to stop by and work out with me, and these boys told Herb,
04:49he said, you got to do something to this kid, man. We can't handle him.
04:52We do something to him. He fights back.
04:54Herb Welch sat David Schultz down then and said, you've got what it takes to make it in this business.
04:59Now we're going to have to smarten you up, son.
05:01He said, well, you're hurting everybody. You're too damn stiff.
05:06Well, he'd never told me any different. I thought you was fighting for your life.
05:09I thought it was real. I thought it was 100% real.
05:12The training that David Schultz got from Herb Welch centered on one thing.
05:16It's the world of kayfabe.
05:18Kayfabe means you don't be seen together right after you had a bad match out here,
05:24blood and guts and everything, and then 10 miles down the road,
05:27they catch you at Shoney's eating together. No, that's supposed to be your enemy back then.
05:32Continuing the aura that wrestling and the people in it are real.
05:36Those are the secrets of wrestling. Protect the business. Don't spill the secrets.
05:40You're in a secret society. This is our world. It was like being in the mafia.
05:44What does it take to be a pro wrestling?
05:46Well, you need to learn how to work.
05:50The holds and the moves and the timing.
05:53That's yanked in the ring.
05:55Know what's going to make the people mad.
05:57Well, I almost killed that Andre the Giant with my bare hand.
06:01Know what's going to make them feel good.
06:02The doctor got funky, daddy. I got funky.
06:05David Schultz found success in wrestling.
06:08Just being David Schultz turned up to 20 is this crazy, you know, redneck hillbilly from Tennessee.
06:14You think you're a man? You ain't nothing, boy.
06:16Through it all, Schultz did what he was trained to do.
06:19Never break kayfabe.
06:21A lot of boys thought I was the meanest baddest they ever seen because I made them work hard in
06:26the ring.
06:27Hogan was one of them.
06:29This man is not a television illusion.
06:34He is not an artist's conception.
06:38He is not a figment of the imagination.
06:43He is the Hulk.
06:46In the late 1970s, Hulk Hogan is an up-and-coming wrestler from Augusta, Georgia.
06:52He first crossed paths with Schultz, working the Florida circuit.
06:56I thought he was just a big old bodybuilder that wanted to get into business, and he was.
07:02He had no money. He had nothing.
07:04He was living in a band, and I let him come into my apartment with me and share my apartment
07:09with me in Pensacola.
07:10We become real good friends.
07:12The two are natural adversaries, and it's not long before their epic confrontations attract the attention of Vince McMahon,
07:20whose World Wrestling Federation is expanding nationwide.
07:24And in 1983, McMahon handpicks Hogan to be his centerpiece attraction.
07:29Making his first appearance in this arena, ladies and gentlemen, Hulk Hogan.
07:36In 1983, Vince McMahon was systematically going around, filling spots for his plan to take over the wrestling world.
07:44Why did Hulk go with Vince at the WWF?
07:47Money. Of course, Vince told him, we're going to put the belt on you, and you're going to be our
07:51number one guy.
07:52Hogan wanted me to come up and work with him, because he told Vince, hey, I can make money with
07:57this guy.
07:59Shultz is brought into the WWF to be Hogan's top rival, as their in-ring chemistry was already a proven
08:06draw.
08:07Vince called me and said, I need you to come on up, and you ain't got to worry about making
08:12money anymore.
08:13We're going to be sure you make all the money you need for the rest of your life.
08:17You ain't got to worry about it.
08:18Vince McMahon, he said, David, I want you to be the baddest heel around.
08:22Baddest bad guy there is, you're going to be.
08:24They told me the competition was here. They told me the greatest wrestlers in the world was here.
08:29If that's an example of great wrestlers, baby, I'm going to walk over like a steamroller.
08:35He wasn't a cookie-cutter heel. He was a little wilder and a little crazier, and that type of thing
08:40was starting to get over.
08:42They had the footage on TNT, Tuesday Night Titans, where they go to Shultz's house, and he's firing rifles off
08:47in the living room.
08:48Whoa! You stupid idiot!
08:51You know, telling his wife to go scrub the floors.
08:53Get up and get us something to eat or something.
08:55Woman, get in there and get that done. Kids, get in there and do this.
08:58I'll slap that smile off your face. Don't smile at me, boy.
09:01Vince said, the sheriff's department and the state police came to his office that Monday morning
09:07and wanted to know my address, where I live.
09:09They had warrants for my arrest for child abuse and spousal abuse.
09:13And Vince said, oh, my God, that was a show!
09:18And the guys couldn't believe it.
09:20That was all Vince.
09:21Those wasn't my guns.
09:23Vince had somebody at the TV station bring no gun.
09:26This in here is worth a lot of money.
09:27Everything I got is worth a lot of money.
09:29Wasn't my house.
09:30Wasn't my wife.
09:31Wasn't my kids.
09:33Get up!
09:33Get up!
09:34Get up!
09:34Go!
09:34Get up!
09:35Get up!
09:35Stand up!
09:35All that was Vince McMahon to make people hate me.
09:39And the more they hated me, the more money we made.
09:41McMahon has hit on a formula that works, and his empire is growing rapidly.
09:47However, as a result, it starts to attract unwanted attention.
09:52I liked it as a kid, and now I thought it was kind of silly and hypocritical.
09:59I'm John Stossel.
10:00I was a consumer reporter who became a general reporter at 2020.
10:06And, you know, sometimes I wonder about the credentials of these doctors who promote vitamins.
10:11In the early 1980s, John Stossel is a rising journalist for ABC News, who's made a name for
10:17himself taking down shady companies and corrupt businessmen.
10:21How can you say it might not be harmful, yet most of the people who die of lung cancer smoke?
10:27Now, Stossel has chosen to turn his investigative lens towards another highly lucrative industry,
10:33one he believes is deceiving its audience.
10:36I was a wrestler in high school, and I was always a little annoyed that people,
10:41some people, believed that pro-wrestling was real,
10:45rather than a scripted event where the winner is preordained,
10:49and people dress up in funny clothes and pretend anger and bullshit.
10:55It had leaked out that 2020 was going to do a piece,
10:58and obviously if it's ABC Network News, it's going to be an expose.
11:02I just thought it was interesting that this big, growing, successful business was based on bullshit.
11:09I mean, cleverly done athletic bullshit, but lies.
11:14The worst thing that could ever happen, everybody's going to want to know, is wrestling fake or not?
11:27The number one cardinal rule of professional wrestling for 100 years was don't expose the secrets.
11:32One of the biggest, most famous exposés happened in New York in the 1930s.
11:39A thrilling and dramatic exposé of modern wrestling fakes coming soon.
11:43In New York, newspaper exposés killed wrestling for almost 15 years.
11:48Everybody realized, this is our society, this is kayfabe, we can't reveal what's going on, it'll cost us all our
11:55livelihoods.
11:56Fifty years later, the stakes are just as high for Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation.
12:01And for his newest superstar, David Schultz, kayfabe is a religion.
12:07I don't care what you think, I don't care what the people think about me,
12:10I don't care what nobody thinks about me, I don't care what you think about me.
12:14It was my business.
12:15If I didn't observe kayfabe, they'd look at me and say, ah, he's a phony.
12:20No, I was a pro wrestler.
12:22I come do that, WWL, baby.
12:25We're the toughest in the world, is Rassman right now.
12:29Being a pro wrestler means that I had standards I had to stand up to.
12:33That's the only way I could make money, have high standards.
12:36As the WWF's popularity is reaching new heights, ABC News reporter John Stossel must somehow infiltrate wrestling's secret society
12:45if he's to expose what happens behind the scenes.
12:49We either did a survey or found a survey that about a third of the people who attended the events
12:54thought it was real.
12:56This is real?
12:57Yeah, I think so, yes.
12:58And I don't like people being bullshitted and couldn't do a story unless we could find some insider who would
13:06say,
13:07yeah, here's how we faked this and that and was willing to go into a ring and demonstrate.
13:13And eventually we found Eddie Mansfield.
13:16I'm the continental lover, Eddie Mansfield.
13:19A rich woman's lover in a poor girl's dream.
13:21The continental lover, Eddie Mansfield.
13:24I left the state of Georgia when I was 17 to go play baseball.
13:28When I hurt my arm and I couldn't play baseball anymore, I had to find something to do.
13:32You couldn't just drink every day.
13:34And you wrecked soul, cowboy.
13:36And so I always liked wrestling.
13:37When I was breaking into business, I was kind of self-taught a little bit.
13:41But the bottom line is, I could draw money and I could talk on that mic.
13:44First I'm going to chase you around the place and then I'm going to erase your face.
13:48And I was very fortunate.
13:49The only thing that really shocked me was the payoffs.
13:54You know, you're drawing sellout crowds and you're getting not even pennies on a dollar.
13:58But no health care, no nothing.
14:00That's where I'm having the problem.
14:02Well, how come you don't treat us like professional athletes are supposed to be treated?
14:07Not like the scum of the earth.
14:09Why don't you give these guys health insurance in a 401k?
14:13Set an example.
14:14You want to be a big-time promoter?
14:16Let's set an example.
14:19You know, I didn't quit the wrestling business.
14:21The wrestling business quit me.
14:23How did you get in that position?
14:24Well, I wouldn't kick back 20% of my money.
14:27The booker at the time wanted to control people.
14:30They did it to the other guys who agreed to it.
14:33But I didn't agree to it.
14:34And then my bookings stopped.
14:36I mean, boom.
14:38As quick as I went up, I was out.
14:41I said, you do this to me?
14:44I will promise you I'll go on national television and I will tell the whole world what kind of scam
14:51you're running on the guys.
14:54I said, try me.
14:57Well, he did.
14:58I made one phone call to ABC.
15:02Stossel and his producers at 2020 arrange an interview with Eddie Mansfield, who agrees to reveal the tricks of the
15:09trade.
15:10You couldn't just say, hey, this is fake.
15:12You had to both reveal and entertain people.
15:16So I needed a genuine professional wrestler to demonstrate.
15:21And so when was the first time you met John Stossel?
15:25When we shot.
15:28You know, I talked to them and we were kind of laying out the show and how it would run
15:32and all that.
15:34John Stossel come down, went in the ring with him.
15:36Pro wrestler, show him how that stuff's done.
15:40He lands on his forearms and elbows, not on me.
15:44He showed me how to jump and be thrown and some of the tricks.
15:49You just take off on your own.
15:51Right.
15:52Why didn't they come get me?
15:53Let me take him into the ring.
15:55I could show him how it's done.
15:57No, you had to have two wimps out there, Stossel and Mansfield.
16:01Good.
16:02Good.
16:03Mansfield tried to give the standard expose that, yes, we're told to win and lose.
16:08Is this real wrestler?
16:09No.
16:10Not real, no.
16:11Not at all.
16:13I mean, if somebody believed that, they'd be stupid.
16:15But also, he went so far as to show the blade.
16:20Nobody wanted fake blood where people could find it.
16:24That would be proof that what we were doing was bullshit.
16:27So everybody bled for real.
16:29There's two ways to do that, the easy way and the hard way.
16:32The easy way is with a blade.
16:36You know, they were just on me, just show the blade, show the blade, show the blade.
16:40I'm going, hey, what about all this other stuff I need to talk about?
16:43They had to push it, push it, push it.
16:44You know what I mean?
16:45And so, um, and I did it.
16:51You go just like that.
16:56And then gradually during the match, it would drift around over your face.
16:59That's it.
17:00See, if I was sweating, it'd pour.
17:03I was pretty shocked.
17:05And also something about hiding a razor blade in their mouths.
17:09Some keep the blade right here in their mouth.
17:13Some in their tights.
17:15These are tough dudes who risk a lot for this sport.
17:19Sport, I shouldn't call it a sport for this entertainment.
17:26John Stossel is only focused on anything to expose the business.
17:30And I wasn't there to expose the business.
17:32I was there to help the business.
17:35And the promoters are very ruthless people.
17:39And they don't take care of the people that make them the money.
17:42I wanted to get the health care and the benefits for the boys.
17:46He come back and says, oh, I wanted to do it for insurance.
17:49This guy, he just couldn't get no work.
17:51Nobody wanted to use him.
17:52He wasn't worth a shit.
17:55Eddie Mansfield's a has-been, never was, couldn't get where he wanted to be, didn't have the talent.
18:00And still tries to claim he did it for the boys.
18:02Bottom line is, it's time now for them to step up and protect the guys where they have a future,
18:09when they get old.
18:09You know, I made a statement one time.
18:12I said, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, but Abraham Lincoln forgot to free the pro wrestlers.
18:19Armed with insider knowledge, Stossel sets out to confront the industry over Mansfield's allegations.
18:27I thought, well, we need to have the usual person from the professional organization saying, oh, this isn't fake.
18:35This is all real.
18:36And so we went to Madison Square Garden, and I guess Vince McMahon okayed it, or we wouldn't have been
18:41there.
18:43I arrived at the arena, and of course, downstairs, we walked through where the wrestlers come in, and the fans.
18:50Some people hollering, some people cussing.
18:52Going to the dressing room, talk to all the boys, hello.
18:54Sit down and put my boots on like I always do.
18:56Get ready, and that's when Vince come walking in.
18:59And he said, listen, we got a guy out here making a joke out of the business.
19:04I want you to go out and interview with him, blast him, tear his ass up, stay in character, Dr.
19:10D.
19:11We were backstage, and I talked to the guy they call the Iron Sheik, and then McMahon said, here's another
19:19guy.
19:20And then Schultz came out.
19:24He was a little frightening.
19:26Why are you called Dr. D?
19:27Why not?
19:30This was a recipe for disaster.
19:32I'm thinking, why would anybody have gone up to Schultz?
19:36Is this a good business?
19:38Yeah, it's a good business.
19:38I wouldn't be in it if it wasn't.
19:39Why is it a good business?
19:41Because only the tough survive.
19:42That's the reason you ain't in it.
19:43And this punk holding the camera, reading he ain't in it.
19:45Reading these rednecks out here ain't in it, because it's a tough business.
19:49I was feeling uncomfortable all the way, and almost didn't ask him the question.
19:56I'll ask you the standard question.
19:58And I said, the standard question, huh?
20:00Okay.
20:01Standard question.
20:02I think this is fake.
20:03I think it's fake.
20:05Now I'm thinking, Vince wanted me to stay in character.
20:08Dr. D slapped the hell out of somebody to say that.
20:10I think this is fake.
20:12You think it's fake?
20:14What's that?
20:15Is that fake?
20:15Holy shit.
20:16What the hell just happened here?
20:27Boom.
20:28There goes Stossel down.
20:30Go back before the first slap.
20:32Right there.
20:32Look, look, look.
20:33Now that I watched that back, he didn't even hit him nearly as hard as he could have.
20:37He didn't even draw back.
20:38He just, boom.
20:39I mean, it still is David Schultz, but he could have paralyzed him if he'd drawn back the swung.
20:45I think this is fake.
20:46You think it's fake?
20:48Whack whacked me in the ear and knocked me down, and then I stupidly got up again.
20:53Huh?
20:54What the hell's wrong with you?
20:55That's open-hand slap, huh?
20:56I was always told, man, get up.
20:58You got to knock him back down.
20:59Because if he gets up, he might hurt you.
21:02You think it's fake?
21:03You're talking to me like this?
21:04He whacked me in the other ear.
21:05My ears were ringing.
21:06What do you mean?
21:07Hey.
21:07I was stunned and a little scared, and that's why I crawled off.
21:12I didn't want to get hit again.
21:16That's why I told them specifically not to interview David Schultz.
21:21Because I told them, I said, if you ask him stupid questions, you're going to get slapped.
21:28I was angry and stunned.
21:30I also thought, well, that's a clip we'll use at the end of our 2020 story.
21:36I didn't think it'd be anything.
21:38I figured, you slapped him for rude manners, like my mama would slap me if I did something wrong.
21:47In a minute, and I think about it.
21:50Boom.
21:51Moments after flooring 2020 reporter John Stossel, David Schultz heads to the ring for his match with Japanese wrestling icon
21:59Antonio Inoki.
22:01He's unaware of the gravity of the situation developing backstage.
22:06Schultz.
22:07Doctor's in trouble.
22:08Oh, what a move.
22:10Karate kick right there.
22:11Oh, no.
22:12It's all over.
22:13It is all over.
22:14After the match, Vince said, just go to the hotel because Stossel's saying he's hurt and all that.
22:19He's talking about pressing charges.
22:21For what?
22:23Vince said, don't even take a shower.
22:25Go on to the hotel.
22:26I just put my sweatpants on, sweatshirt, grabbed my bag, and was gone.
22:32Vince had to be thinking, starting at that point, I'm going to have to do something with Schultz,
22:37or I'm going to have to eliminate Schultz from the equation.
22:40Next day, I went up to Stanford and seen him.
22:43He was telling me about the New York Athletic Commission suspending me and told me he's going to pay the
22:48fine.
22:49He's going to get everything straightened out.
22:51Don't worry about it.
22:52He was going to send me to Japan and let this thing cool over.
22:55Eight weeks after the incident, John Stossel's 2020 report airs, and the wrestling community is universally outraged.
23:03You are trying to kill our business, take money away from us and our families, you little pissant.
23:09John Stossel, that's what all the wrestlers thought about him.
23:11Eddie, the body slammed me, but Eddie says anybody can do it.
23:15Eddie Mansfield, they hated him.
23:17South collusion.
23:19I had death threats, people trying to plant cocaine on me, and I knew I just had to get out
23:24of the South,
23:24you know, before I either went to jail for killing somebody or somebody killing me.
23:30I moved into New York.
23:32I had four FBI guys with me on the plane to make sure I got to New York safe.
23:38You're not messing with the promoters when you expose the business.
23:40You were messing with the boys.
23:42They fear more about what their friends and what their cohorts will do to them than the penalty they can
23:49get from the law.
23:50When you look back, I should have just got my butt up and just left.
23:55If the deal feels bad, the deal is bad.
23:59It cost me my career, but that's okay.
24:02They did me a favor because I'm better off today than I ever would have been in wrestling.
24:09Pro wrestling doesn't take care of the people that make us the money, and it never has.
24:14And just preaching, oh, you've got to protect the business, you've got to do this.
24:18Well, why do I want to protect something that doesn't protect me?
24:23Vince McMahon sends Schultz to wrestle in Japan, hoping the follow-up from the incident will die down.
24:29Instead, the controversy follows Schultz east.
24:33First thing they wanted me to do in Japan was hit a reporter.
24:38And I told them, I'm not hitting nobody unless you write it down as part of the script.
24:44And they did write it down.
24:46How was that set up?
24:47Well, he come into the dressing room, had a camera.
24:50I told him, I'd just slap you upside the head, you'd fall down.
24:54Then the camera guy would take a picture of you laying on the floor.
24:57And the news, Tokyo News, saying, you know, Dr. D comes now to Japan and slaps a reporter like he
25:04did in New York.
25:07Back at ABC News, more than a thousand people call in to inquire about John Stossel's well-being after seeing
25:14his report on television.
25:16My ears were ringing, and I had pain when there was a loud noise.
25:22My daughter was a baby at the time, and when she cried, it hurt my ears.
25:26It made it tough for me to change her diapers or parent well.
25:31I thought that McMahon and his group should be taught a lesson that they can't go beating up reporters.
25:38And I sued for damages.
25:40I wanted some compensation for my pain.
25:45What Stossel don't understand is, I went to his lawyer and talked to his lawyer before Vince ever got sued
25:51or anything else.
25:53My lawyer that I had at that time told me, you need to go tell him the whole story and
25:57take care of yourself, because Vince is not going to take care of you.
26:01At the WWF, it's clear to McMahon that the Stossel incident is not going away, and he needs Schultz to
26:09help him solve it.
26:10He didn't know he was going to get sued by John Stossel, and when he got sued, I knew he
26:15wasn't in it, so he was mad.
26:19I went by the office, and that's when he wanted me to sign a paper saying that it was all
26:24my father did, under my own influence.
26:28I know, that ain't going to happen.
26:29I'm not going to take blame for you, what you had me to do.
26:34I'll sign a paper saying I did what you told me to do.
26:37John Stossel said I hit him in both cheeks, the right cheek and then the left cheek on their position,
26:43and anybody who watches the tapes that got any sense can see I never hit his ears.
26:49While Schultz is falling out of favor at the WWF, Stossel's lawsuit is intensifying.
26:56As part of the pre-trial prep, you go to their doctor so their doctor can examine you.
27:04They sent me to a highfalutin guy who, without examining me, said, I think you're suffering from a gerosomatic illness.
27:12What? I said, a gerosomatic illness.
27:15You're holding on to your pain because you're involved in a lawsuit.
27:19And I said, screw you, you're the paid lawyer for the defendants, and you haven't even examined me and you're
27:25saying this?
27:26What was the outcome of that situation?
27:29Years later, they settled.
27:31I got $280,000.
27:33Do some people psychologically feel pain longer because of that, as this doctor claimed?
27:40Maybe.
27:41Maybe he was right.
27:43Because I held on to my pain, but it gradually did go away when I got paid.
28:05Vince's concept for WrestleMania was the biggest wrestling event ever held times 10,
28:10an over-the-top, closed-circuit, globally-broadcast extravaganza that would combine celebrities and wrestling matches.
28:18Looking to appeal to the widest possible audience,
28:22McMahon adds a Hollywood actor to the roster and puts him at the top of the card.
28:27Mr. T was one of the biggest television stars in the country.
28:31In 1985, he had been a star of The A-Team with George Pappard.
28:35You want him?
28:35No, you take him.
28:38He's working with Sylvester Stallone.
28:40Dead meat.
28:41He had a great body and a mohawk, and he wore the chains.
28:45But he looked the part, and he talked the part, and could make people believe he was the part.
28:48You've been teaching me how to pump by, get my pythons ready, and I'm glad you brought me here.
28:52The WWF positions Hulk Hogan and Mr. T front and center in their nationwide promotion.
28:58But Schultz's name is missing entirely.
29:01I didn't think Mr. T should be coming in to go in a wrestling match when he's never wrestled or
29:06anything.
29:06And pay him the more he pays any of his wrestlers.
29:10I said, that's a joke.
29:11You're putting T into WrestleMania I?
29:14What about me?
29:15Where are you putting me?
29:17Schultz watches on as buzz around WrestleMania grows bigger by the day.
29:21At a WWF event in Los Angeles, tensions backstage escalate even further.
29:27Mr. T and some of his Hollywood friends were there to see the matches,
29:32and I'm sure he was being treated as a guest and just being allowed the run of the place.
29:37I believe that Schultz genuinely resented T's presence there and didn't want him in the locker room
29:44because that was reserved for the boys.
29:46That was a sanctuary.
29:47Did you have a physical altercation with Mr. T that night?
29:51No.
29:52Mr. T was in the hallway talking to me that night.
29:55Jay Strongbow was the agent on the job.
29:57He'd come out and seen him in the hallway with me.
30:00He said, David, Vince had told me that if you was going to go out there and bother Mr. T,
30:05to fire you.
30:06Well, you better fire me then.
30:08He said, okay, you're fired.
30:11I get dressed and go down to the ring to watch the match.
30:15I was just going out to see Toya Tanaka, a good friend of mine.
30:19He's sitting with Mr. T.
30:20So I went to the ring side, and the cops come up.
30:23Jay Strongbow called the cops and told them that I was a fairly dangerous guy
30:28and I was about to hurt somebody out there, and they need to get me out of there.
30:33They hogtied me, hands handcuffed behind my back, flat on my stomach, feet shackled.
30:39I'm tied to my hand.
30:41And then two cops takes guns and put them to my head on each side and threw me out the
30:47back door.
30:49Vince, he had to be thinking, what the fuck?
30:52I've got to calm these guys down.
30:54That was the fucking atmosphere.
30:55They didn't relate well with outsiders at that point.
30:58Vince had to get rid of Schultz because it was only going to get worse.
31:03When I got back to Connecticut, I checked with Vince, and he said,
31:07I'm going to have to check with Jay Strongbow, find out what happened.
31:10He knew what happened.
31:11And my lawyer wrote him a letter, told him I was ready to go back to work.
31:15And I said, no, Mr. Schultz will not work for us no more, ever.
31:20In 2019, Hulk Hogan came forward with a completely different recollection of the incident with Mr. T.
31:28Out of nowhere, I had T. sitting in ringside because he's a friend of mine, and I didn't know what
31:32was going on.
31:33David rolled out of the ring and bitch slapped the hell out of him just out of nowhere, a shoot
31:37slap.
31:38And after that, he was pretty much done.
31:40Vince was so pissed at him, that pretty much was the bullet that did him in.
31:46Most people know who that is, Dr. D., and I guess, you know, Hogan, old Big Head Hogan.
31:54Boy, he used to hate for me to tell him he had a big head.
31:57And now he don't have no hair at all.
32:00What is on the back?
32:01Okay.
32:01Uh, old friend forgot his name.
32:07So, I don't know if Schultz also had anything to do with my getting fired.
32:11They said it was because of Mr. T.
32:14Well, that's a bunch of crap.
32:15And then, you know, to beat all of that is Hogan went within a few weeks after that and dropped
32:21Belzer.
32:22Mr. Hulk Hogan.
32:25One of the publicity appearances that they had arranged for Hulk Hogan and Mr. T to build up for WrestleMania
32:31was an appearance on the Richard Belzer show.
32:33There's a thing that the boys used to do with a reporter or a photographer or somebody from the public.
32:39Now, the first thing you need to know about amateur wrestling or professional wrestling.
32:43Mr. Hulk, you just tell me, brother, when you want him to quit squealing, okay?
32:46All right.
32:46Let me just put one hold on you and just show you what it feels like, what we go through.
32:50How about it, T?
32:52Keep like that for a little while.
32:54Put him in a sleeper.
32:56I mean, choked him.
33:01And he passed out, dropped him on the floor, and he busted his head.
33:06He's all right.
33:07He's just sleeping.
33:08He's sleeping.
33:09Huh?
33:10Hogan didn't get nothing out of it.
33:12We feel real bad about the incident that just happened.
33:14When somebody asked me to show a professional wrestling hold, especially when they sit here
33:18and laugh in my face when I'm talking to them, I just showed him the simplest hold that I
33:22knew, and I thought...
33:23There was a settlement.
33:23I'm sure Vince probably paid it at that point.
33:26Number one, Vince McMahon wouldn't go fire Hulk Hogan, even feed a shot Richard Belzer in
33:30the head.
33:31Hogan was the golden child.
33:33It seemed like you and Terry were, like, close at one point.
33:36Did this kind of come in between your friendship with him and Hulk?
33:38Oh, yeah, yeah.
33:40We was close.
33:41We were very close.
33:42Probably one of the best friends I ever had in the business until he turned his back
33:45on me.
33:47Hulk Hogan!
33:48Then all of a sudden, he's with Vince, and it's like, hey, I can't talk to you, can't
33:53deal with you.
33:54You're on your own.
33:55Don't, you know.
33:56And ain't talked to him since.
33:58As Hogan becomes a household name, Schultz's star fades away.
34:03He tries to find steady work in the smaller territories, but believes he's being blackballed
34:09by the industry.
34:10They called me back and said, nobody wants to sign a contract with you.
34:13You're too mean.
34:14You're too bad.
34:15Everybody I called, they didn't even want to talk to me, the promoters, because of
34:19Vince, you know.
34:20He told them, hey, you use him, I'm through with you.
34:23Don't call me for nothing, ever.
34:26Yeah, it was a hardship, but I worked through it.
34:30I kept working independent for a year or two, and then I became the world's greatest
34:34bounty hunter.
34:36Open the door, right now.
34:38What happens when wrestling's most notorious bad guy becomes a real-life gun for hire?
34:44Dr. D. David Schultz, the world's greatest bounty hunter, is coming to a screen near you.
34:55Exiled from wrestling and desperate for cash, David Schultz is introduced to the dangerous
35:00world of bounty hunting by a friend in law enforcement.
35:03He told me, I'll introduce you to the bondmen, and what you do is you go pick them up, you
35:08get the paperwork, and you bring them in, you get paid.
35:12Ten percent of the bond.
35:13Oh, okay, that sounds good.
35:15Yeah, $250,000.
35:16Yeah, that's a nice one.
35:17And they had nobody doing it at that time.
35:20I went in, they told me they had this one guy, motorcycle guy, bad guy, nobody wanted
35:24to go get him, and they needed to get him in.
35:27Well, the next morning, I brought him in.
35:28Come around the corner, I put a nine millimeter in his mouth, and he wasn't bad at all.
35:32He went right to the ground, handcuffed him, took him to jail, and I said, wow, it's pretty
35:37easy right here now.
35:38When you're a pro wrestler, as long as I was, every day you got your hands on a man.
35:44Every day you got a man's arm, you got a man's wrist, you know what hurts, what not, how to
35:51hook him, how to take him down, because you do it every day.
35:55All right, get your hands on the car, okay?
35:56Get him on the car.
35:57It's not strange to you, and it don't bother you to grab a guy, and he don't know what
36:01happening to him.
36:03Have my brother call Tony.
36:05Schultz takes to the job like he was born to do it.
36:08He soon develops a reputation as one of the most reliable bounty hunters in America.
36:13And the only way you're going to get away from the doctor is when you come out that house
36:17and you see me standing out there, you better take off running.
36:20My job takes me where the criminal goes.
36:23Wherever he goes, I go.
36:24It may take me to Saudi Arabia.
36:25Wherever he goes, I'm going to follow him.
36:27I'm going to be right on him.
36:28All the bondsmen started calling me.
36:30I had more work than I could do.
36:32If you found him, you got paid.
36:34If you didn't, you didn't.
36:35Fucking people, man, they hide everywhere.
36:38But you got all kind of them, man.
36:40You got all kind of them, you got hookers, you got drug dealers.
36:45But everybody out on the streets knew me as Dr. D.
36:48You know, when people know you, it's a lot easier to get into their house
36:51or they'll open the door for you or whatever.
36:54Papa, that's Dr. D.
36:55David Schultz, buddy.
36:57That's the one that beat the shit I heard Donald Rivera.
37:01Yeah, I feel good going in with you.
37:09We're coming to your home, your living room,
37:12and it's going to be true, live, actual footage.
37:16No more make-believe.
37:17It's all over.
37:18I'll be there soon.
37:20What would you say is, like,
37:22the most memorable experience you had as a bounty hunter?
37:25Well, the best one was when I picked up the two girls
37:28that was kidnapped by this piece of garbage.
37:31And three years, they couldn't find him, the FBI.
37:34The two girls got kidnapped 14, 15 years old
37:37when he took off with them.
37:38They said when he left the house,
37:40he would chain them around the commode.
37:45And the only way they could drink water
37:46was out of the commode while he was gone.
37:49I mean, this guy was sicko, you know.
37:51I found him in Puerto Rico.
37:53And I walked in the bar, and he was sitting at the bar.
37:56The two girls were stripping on stage,
37:59and they had a baby in the back room.
38:01Two Dobermans living back there with her.
38:04And I said, hey, Larry, Dr. D. David Schultz,
38:07bail enforcement agent, you're under arrest.
38:09And he jumped off the bar and ran around the side.
38:12I slid over the top of the bar,
38:13and he was going out the back door.
38:15And two Puerto Rican policemen
38:17pulled down on the shotguns.
38:20I jumped on him, handcuffed him,
38:22took him outside, throwed him in the car.
38:24We ended up with two girls, two dogs, a baby.
38:28We had an old group, man.
38:30But I got them back home,
38:32and I guess they're doing great today.
38:35It's like kind of living in an action movie.
38:37Oh, yeah, all the time, all the time.
38:39You just got to be careful,
38:42because let me tell you,
38:43one mistake is your last one.
38:45While the former wrestler is risking his life in the streets,
38:48his old boss, Vince McMahon, drops a major bombshell.
38:52State legislatures are being urged
38:54by the biggest of all wrestling promoters
38:56to think the unthinkable,
38:58to declare that pro wrestling is not a sport at all,
39:00but an entertainment whose outcome
39:02is actually known before the battle begins.
39:05In an ironic twist,
39:07McMahon is attempting to lift the veil
39:09on the very thing Schultz became infamous for protecting.
39:12Vince McMahon went to the athletic department in Baltimore
39:16and told him, hey, it's entertainment.
39:20It's not a sport, it's entertainment.
39:22Yeah, you just suppose the whole business.
39:32Four years after the inaugural Wrestlemania,
39:35Vince McMahon's gamble has more than paid off.
39:38But to increase profits,
39:40he aims to change the rules
39:42around how wrestling is regulated.
39:44Those commissions would
39:46license promoters and wrestlers
39:48and take tax cut
39:50for the right to hold that event in their state.
39:53It might be 5 or 6 percent of the gate.
39:55Some states,
39:56maybe up to 10 percent.
39:57It is now official.
39:59Wrestling is not really wrestling.
40:02Wrestling promoters have told their secrets
40:04in an attempt to free themselves
40:05from the half-Nelson of government regulation.
40:08We shouldn't be governed by a state body
40:10unless you're going to license Broadway.
40:12That was the comparison.
40:13It's a show.
40:15When Vince McMahon came out
40:17and said it was entertainment,
40:18he justified what I said.
40:21You understand?
40:22Kayfabe.
40:23That's a bunch of crap.
40:25I mean, what idiot came up with that?
40:30After McMahon makes his appeal
40:32to the state Senate,
40:34New Jersey finally frees the WWF from regulation.
40:37For Vince McMahon,
40:39it's all part of the show.
40:40I did watch it with my son,
40:42who was a very big fan.
40:44We bought all the figures,
40:45and I understand what a difference
40:47it makes to people.
40:48Many other states eager for the WWF's business
40:52follow New Jersey's lead
40:54and deregulate what McMahon now calls
40:57sports entertainment.
40:59Stossel was set up,
41:00and Eddie Mansfield had everybody set up.
41:04He went up there and sold his soul out.
41:07I gave my whole career up
41:08because of these people.
41:10Do you or will you ever,
41:12or would you ever forgive John Stossel?
41:15It's really not for me to forgive.
41:18It's God's job to forgive him.
41:22And I'm not God.
41:25What are the things you're doing now?
41:27What am I doing now?
41:28Well, starting next week,
41:29I'll be driving a tractor trailer,
41:3118-wheel,
41:32hauling cotton from the gin
41:33to the warehouses.
41:35I'll do that about three months,
41:36four months.
41:37I work from sunup to sundown,
41:39and then during the night.
41:42There's two ways that David Schultz's career
41:44in wrestling could have gone.
41:46One, he would have made a ton of money
41:48in the WWF
41:49because he would have been a big star there
41:50for quite some time,
41:52or David being David,
41:54as Vince McMahon got more cartoony,
41:57more showbiz,
41:59David would have found something else
42:00to blow up about,
42:01and something would have happened,
42:02which is probably more likely.
42:04What? I want you, Hoban.
42:06Where are you at, boy?
42:07Vince McMahon also wanted to be
42:09the Walt Disney of wrestling.
42:11No way are we going to compete
42:13with those clowns.
42:14He wanted to be more clean,
42:16more family-oriented,
42:17a show that he could take on the road.
42:19So some went with him
42:21and trusted that vision
42:22and got their pictures
42:23on ice cream bars.
42:24Boy, it sure is good.
42:25You ought to try one.
42:26I have about two every day.
42:29Problem was with Schultz,
42:30he had a guy that was tougher
42:31than a Waffle House steak
42:33and didn't like to be pushed around.
42:35Is David Schultz the type of person
42:37that you could control?
42:38I think if you treated David
42:40as a human being
42:41and respected him
42:42as a professional athlete,
42:45you could control anybody.
42:46I don't think that's the problem
42:48with David.
42:49I think it's being disrespected.
42:53And I think that was all
42:54of our problems.
42:55You think it's fake?
42:57It's still annoying
42:59that I've done a million pieces
43:00that people still come up
43:02and say,
43:03aren't you the guy
43:03who got whacked
43:04by the wrestler?
43:05On YouTube,
43:06it's probably my second
43:07most watched video.
43:10I become immortal?
43:11People are going to talk about me
43:12when I'm dead and gone.
43:13Oh, yeah,
43:14we remember that guy.
43:15He slapped the hell
43:16out of that reporter,
43:17Dr. D. David Schultz.
43:19And I've offered
43:20to go face-to-face with him.
43:22Let's straighten this thing out,
43:23John Stossel and me.
43:24And don't worry,
43:26John Stossel,
43:26I'm not going to hurt you, boy.
43:28If there's something
43:29you could say
43:30to David Schultz now,
43:31what would you say to him?
43:33Fuck you, David.
43:36I understand.
43:37I stood up for wrestling.
43:39And it don't really bother me
43:41what people think about me.
43:42I really don't care.
43:44You know,
43:45they can think anything
43:46they want.
43:46I don't care.
43:48And I'll tell them
43:49I don't care.
43:49I don't care.
43:52Mm.
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